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870 YAO
Unpublished Manuscripts
Donald, Leland. "Changes in Yalunka Social Organization: A Study of Adaptation to a
Changing Cultural Environment." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, 1968.
Fyle, C. Magbaily. "Solimana and Its Neighbors: A History of the Solima Yalunka from
the Mid-seventeenth Century to the start of the colonial period." Ph.D. dissertation,
Northwestern University, 1976.
Leland Donald
YAO Known by a variety of names—Wayao, Wahyao, Veiao, Adjao—that
no doubt reflect their mobility over the past centuries, the Yao live in Malawi,
Mozambique and Tanzania. They number close to 1 million. Three other peoples
are sufficiently close culturally and linguistically to be grouped with the Yao.
They are the Mwera, Makua and Makonde, most of whom live in Tanzania; an
unknown number live in Mozambique. Among them they number close to 7
million so that it seems probable that the total Yao group numbers more than 8
million, of whom 3.9 million are Muslims.
The Yao claim that their traditional homeland was between the Lujenda and
Rovuma rivers east of Lake Malawi. For at least two centuries before the colonial
intrusion of the late nineteenth century the Yao were active as traders, bartering
ivory, slaves, beeswax and tobacco for guns, gunpowder, cloth and beads. The
suppliers of these commodities were the Arab and Swahili peoples on the coast,
who did not themselves make any major penetration into the interior until the
early nineteenth century. Not only were the Yao active in the slave trade, but
slaves were also an integral part of their economic and political system before
the coming of Europeans. The rapid spread of Islam among the Yao seems to
have been due partly to their long association with Arabs but much more to their
suspicion of Europeans and Christian missionaries as being antagonistic to their
way of life.
In their home areas the Yao are hoe agriculturalists, growing millet and sorghum.
To replace commercial activities curtailed by the loss of the slave and ivory
trade, many Yao men have had to accept contracts as migrant laborers on estates
and mines. One estimate suggests that as many as 30 percent of adult males
may be away at any one time.
Before the colonial conquest the Yao lived in autonomous villages, each with
a headman. Several villages were grouped under a chief of a district. Because
of the possession of slaves as workers and their value for trade, the chiefs were
very powerful and only submitted to colonial rule by force of arms. Divested
of their slaves, their economic power was undermined, and until recently a
headman or chief lived in a manner little different from anyone else.
The average Yao village consisted of only about a dozen houses, but it was
a highly important unit of social organization. The headman was politically
powerful and belonged to the dominant matrilineage. Matrilineal descent was
the rule and produced conflicts of interest for the headman. Whereas many men